The clothing retailer says full-price sales at its stores between
26 October and 24 December, the key Christmas shopping period,
fell by 0.5%. Overall sales rose by 0.4%, thanks to a boost from
its catalogue business. But even the 2% NEXT Directory sales
growth was "disappointing" and well below expectations.

NEXT produced this graph to justify the sales fall, showing
just how much a change in average temperature compared to the
previous year can make a difference to sales.NEXT

Retailers love to blame the weather for all sorts of difficulties
but this latest claim is more believable than some. The impact of
warm weather on retail sales was
well documented in the run up to Christmas and NEXT is
unlikely to be the only one blaming it for a sales slowdown.

But, unusually, NEXT has had difficulties beyond the
changing temperature. Here's the company:

Whilst warm weather may have been the main reason for a difficult
fourth quarter, we would not want to allow difficult trading
conditions to mask any mistakes and challenges faced by the
business. Specifically, we believe that NEXT Directory’s
disappointing sales were compounded by poor stock availability
from October onwards. In addition, the online competitive
environment is getting tougher as industry-wide service
propositions catch up with the NEXT Directory.

Shares in the retailer have crashed to a 12-month low on the
update, down 4.7% at 8.50 a.m. GMT (3.50 a.m. ET).Investing.com

NEXT says sales growth for the year is currently at 3.7%, below
its target of 4-6% growth. And looking ahead, guidance is vague.
The company says sales growth for the year to 2017 could be
anywhere between 1-6%, a very big range.

Thanks to cost and profit margin control, NEXT still thinks
profits for this year will be in the £810 million to £845 million
range it put out in October — a silver lining.

Still, all of this will make for worrying reading for any
investors in High Street shops. NEXT is seen as a bellwether on
the High Street, typically outperforming most rivals with sales
growth and profits. If it's in trouble, it most likely won't be
the only one.